US suffering from inequality, racism for long: Commentator

An author and commentator believes the United States has never been unified in anyway, adding acute inequality and racism have been rampant in the country for a long time.

John Steppling's comments came after a new poll found that a majority of Americans think US President Donald Trump is doing more to divide the country and believe hate crimes and prejudice have dramatically increased since his election.

“In terms of the poll, what it suggests is that there is a manufactured narrative that says there is a civil war now, that there is a relatively small group of neo-clansmen… that do not seem to care about US policy against the Muslim world and so forth… So there is a lot of hypocrisy and there is a lot of simply lack of education, a lot of manipulation, and a lot of propaganda going on,” Steppling told Press TV in an interview on Friday.

He further noted that there is a “huge tide” driven by the Democratic National Committee, neocons and the media “to get rid of Trump”.

However, the analyst said, if such a thing happens, it will “set a very bad precedent” because it will mean that propaganda campaigns can be waged against an elected official and he can be removed from office for “wrong reasons.”

“Trump is incompetent but if we are to impeach him because of phantom crimes associated with Russia and so forth, that suggests something very dire and that there is a great power - what people refer to as the deep state, a sort of unelected parties with great power and money and influence,” Steppling said in conclusion.